Vehicle chair



y 1 c. J. BARECKI ETAL 2,845,111

VEHICLE CHAIR Filed March 25, 1957 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 1NVENTOR5 6 he J 1'02 r I 1 I Iaz-ec'ki "iBror WHenrihJon rails/aid ATTORNEY y 1958 c. J. BARECKI El'AL 2,845,111

VEHICLE CHAIR 3 Sheets-Sheei 2 Filed March 25, 1957 INVENTORS Clzsq'ef JBaz-echi .Brot- WHezz'riliJoz;

ATTORNEY July 29, 1958 c. J. BARE-CK! EIAL 2,

VEHICLE CHAIR Filed March 25, 1957 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 m? w w W? n "in W lllll IIWHHHIHMP1IIIIIII a V. d h z 5 6 r 0 VEHICLE CHAIR Chester J. Barecki and Bror W. Henrikson, Grand Rapids, Mich., assignors to American Seating Company, Grand Rapids, Mich., a corporation of New Jersey Application March 25, 1957, Serial No. 648,351

7 Claims. (Cl. 155-53) The present invention relates to chair construction and more particularly to chairs or seats" for installation in motorbusses, airplanes, railroad cars and other vehicles, and especially in busses of the intracity transit type.

The primary objects of the invention are to provide'a chair for installation in city busses which is both durable and comfortable; to provide a chair in which the seat and back are rigidly connected together and resiliently mounted in the vehicle, so that the seat and back can be integrally molded of resin-reinforced glass fiber or other plastic material and yet be comfortable due to their resilient mountings in the vehicle; to provide such a chair in which the resiliently mounted seat and back structure floats more freely in the rear than in the front, so that the popliteal portions of the passengers anatomy are adequately supported while his torso is permitted to sway with the movements of the vehicle, thus insuring maximum comfort; to provide such a vehicle chair which requires little or no maintenance such as occurs when conventional upholstered chairs become worn and require re-upholstering; and in general to provide a novel vehicle chair which is simple and economical in construction and attractive in appearance.

United States Patent O Illustrative embodiments of the invention are shownv in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a two-passenger vehicle chair constructed according to the invention;

Figure 2 is a side elevational view thereof;

Figure 3 is a fragmentary front elevational view thereof;

Figure 4 is an enlarged, fragmentary, vertical sectional view of parts of the chair taken on line 4-4 of Figure 3;

Figure 5 is a fragmentary, horizontal sectional view of the same taken on line 5-5 of Figure 4; and

Figure 6 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view of a modified form of the parts shown at the right of Figure 4.

Referring now in detail to these drawings wherein like parts are designated by the same numerals in the several views, the vehicle chair there shown generally comprises a base structure fixedly mounted in the vehicle and a chair seat and back structure mounted for floating movement on the base structure.

The base comprises a pair of inverted U shaped tubular metal frames, the front frame being designated 10 and the rear frame 11. These frames provide parallel front and rear supports 12, '13 respectively and legs depending from the supports. The legs 14 on the aisle side of the chair extend to the floor of the vehicle and are adapted for attachment thereto by means of feet 15 secured as by bolts 16 to the floor. As shown, the legs 17 on the wall side of the chair extend only to a base ledge 18, being turned outwardly and flattened to accommodate bolts 19 by which they are secured to the ledge 18. The front and rear base frames 10, 11 are rigidly connected near their upper ends by means of a strut 20 welded to the legs 14 and another strut 21 welded to the legs 17.

A pair of laterally spaced springs 22 comprises metal straps connected in the front of the front support 12 and in the rear to the rear support 13. As best seen in Figure 4, these springs 22 have their forward ends connected to the underside of the front support 12, being secured by bolts 23 and nuts 24 to arms '25 welded to thefront support 12. From these connections the springs 22 extend forwardly, thence upwardly and rearwardly to provide substantial clearance between the springs and the front support. In the rear, the springs 22 are connected to the underside of the rear support 13, being secured by bolts 26 and nuts 27 to arms 28 welded to the rear support 13. From these connections the springs 22 extend rearwardly, thence upwardly and forwardly to provide substantial clearance between the springs and the rear support.

The chair seat and back structure has a front tubular metal cross-bar 29 to the underside of which are welded brackets 30 which are fixedly mounted on the upper front portions of the springs 22 by means of bolts 31 and nuts 32. The chair seat and back structure has also a rear tubular metal cross-bar 33 to the underside of which are secured tubular clips 34 by means of screws 35 (see Figures 2 and 5), which clips 34 connect the rear crossbar 33 to the springs 22 while permitting sliding movement. therebetween. Side frames 36 are secured as by welding tothe ends of the front and rear cross-bars 29 and. 33 at opposite sides of the structure. ---These side frames comprise substantially horizontal seatwsupports 3'7, and back supports 38 which extend rearwardly upwardly from the seat supports 37.

A rigidly connected chair seat and back element 39 is integrally molded of plastic material to define side-by-side bucket type chairs 40 for the accommodation of two passengers. This plastic chair element 39 has a continuous peripheral flange 41, and rivets 42 passing through this flange and through the side frames 36 secure the chair element 39 to the side frames.

The upper ends of the side frames back supports are desirably connected by a grab rail 43, and as here shown the grab rail 43 and side frames 36 are fabricated from a single continuous length of metal tubing.

'It will thus be seen that the rigid seat and back structure is resiliently mounted on the base structure for floating movement, the clearance between springs 22 and the parallel front and rear supports 12, 13 permit-ting such movement. The rearward part of the seat and back structure :floats more freely than the forward part thereof by reason ofthe fact that the rear mountings (at 34) of the chair seat on the springs 22 are spaced farther forwardly from the rear support 13 than the front mountings (at 30) are spaced rearwardly from the front support 12.

The springs 22 are provided with dips 44 in the regions of the rear mountings 34 thus to decrease the distance between the base structure and the chair structure and provide a more compact and better appearing unit.

In the modified form of the invention shown in Figure 6, the forward ends of the springs 122 are secured to the front support 117 by means of bolts 1'23 and nuts 124 which secure the springs 122 to arms 125 extending forwardly from the front support 117 instead of rearwardly from the front support as seen in Figure 4. This modified form'of the invention is provided in case it is desired to fabricate the entire base structure prior to assembly of the springs thereto, since the latter assembly operation might be diflicult to perform with tempered springs of the form shown in Figure 4.

'It will thus be seen that the invention provides an attractive, comfortable and durable vehicle chair, and while but two specific embodiments thereof have been herei n shown and described it will be understood that numerous details may be altered or omitted without departing from the spirit of the invention as defined by the following claims.

We claim:

1. In a chair structure: a base providing parallel front and rear supports; a pair of laterally spaced springs comprising metal straps connected at the front and rear to said supports respectively; and a rigidly connected chair seat and back mounted on said springs for floating movement, the seat having mountings on the forward portions of the springs adjacent said front support and having independent mountings on the rearward portions of the springs substantially forwardly of said rear support whereby the rear part of the rigidly connected seat and back floats more freely than the front part thereof.

2. A chair structure according to claim 1 in which the front mountings of the seat on the springs are fixed whereas the rear mountings of the seat on the springs provide sliding connections between the seat and the springs.

3. A chair structure according to claim 1 in which the springs extend rearwardly, then upwardly and then forwardly from the rear support.

4. A chair structure according to claim 1 in which the rearward ends of the springs are connected to the underside of the rear support and extend therefrom rearwardly, thence upwardly and forwardly above the rear support to provide substantial clearance between the springs and the top of the rear support.

5. A chair structure according to claim 1 in which the springs extend rearwardly, then upwardly and then forwardly from the rear support, and extend forwardly, then upwardly and then rearwardly from the front support.

6. A chair structure according to claim 1 in which the springs extend rearwardly, then upwardly and then forwardly from the rear support and in which the springs are provided with dips in the regions of the rear seat mountings on the springs.

7. In a chair structure: a base providing parallel front and rear supports; a pair of laterally spaced springs comprising metal straps connected at the front and rear to said supports respectively, said springs extending rearwardly, then upwardly and then forwardly from the rear support; and a rigidly connected chair seat and back mounted on said springs for floating movement, the seat having mountings on the forward portions of the springs adjacent said front support and having independent mountings on the rearward portions of the springs substantially forwardly of said springs rearwardmost parts whereby the rear part of the rigidly connected seat and back floats more freely than the front part thereof.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 247,442 Unzicker Sept. 20, 1881 1,475,375 Egan Nov. 27, 1923 1,762,788 Noelle June 10, 1930 2,218,863 Wagner Oct. 22, 1940 2,274,117 Zerbee Feb, 24, 1942 2,437,119 Overby et al. Mar. 2, 1948 2,570,396 Simmons Oct. 9, 1951 2,572,482 Hoven et a1 Oct. 23, 1951 2,630,158 Davis et al. Mar. 3, 1953 2,648,372 Smith Aug. 11, 1953 

